Chapter 4 Colter
COLTER
Danni sprawls on the couch in front of the fireplace.
I couldn’t fit her suitcase on the bike, so she had to leave most of her clothes in her car.
Her dress got soaked in the sudden downpour, and while it dries she’s wearing one of my sweaters.
It’s too big on her and the bagginess hides her curves, but it’s sexy as hell seeing her in my clothes.
So sexy I have to adjust my pants to hide the semi I’ve had ever since she slid onto the back of my bike, her body pressed up against mine thanks to Daisy taking up most of the space back there.
It’s been a long time since I had a woman on the back of my bike, and I’d forgotten how good it feels. How soft her thighs were as they bumped up against me, how her breasts pressed into my back when we leaned into the corners.
When we got to the sorry excuse for a rental cabin she was supposed to stay in, I couldn’t believe my luck. There was no way I was letting her stay in a place like that. And no way I was taking her anywhere else but here.
I could have told her about the Blue Emerald Lodge or the hotel in Hope or any number of B do you have a girlfriend?”
She asked earlier about a wife, and it’s not lost on me that she’s now clarifying the situation.
“It’s just me and Daisy.” The big dog lifts her head at the sound of her name then goes back to sleeping by the fire.
I’m more than a little happy that Danni asked me my relationship status. But if she’s interested, I need to clarify something from the start.
“I don’t do relationships.”
Danni sloshes the wine into the glasses, and some of it goes over the side and onto the kitchen counter.
“You don’t?”
She seems a little disappointed, and that causes a pang in my chest. I shake the thought away and grab a dishcloth to mop up the wine.
“Nope.”
I don’t want to go into the specifics of why I don’t believe in love, so I change the subject.
“What brings you to the mountains?”
Danni winces and looks away. “It’s a long story.”
The pasta sauce is ready, and I grab two bowls to dish it up.
“We’ve got all night.”
I take the bowls over to the table, and Danni follows with the wine. She takes a delicate sip, leaving a smear of lip gloss on the glass.
“I wanted to get away for a few days.”
“Get away from what?”
She eats slowly, taking her time to answer the question. “My whole life, really.”
I sit back and look at her. She’s got to be in her early twenties. I wonder what could have happened to get her so down.
“What are you running from?”
She shrugs. “It’s nothing serious. No one’s chasing me or anything. It’s just that my life is a mess. I’m a mess.”
“You don’t look like a mess to me.”
She looks far from a mess. The opposite of a mess. She looks delicious and sexy and like I want to gobble her right up. But there is a sadness about Danni. Her smile never quite reaches her eyes.
“I lost my job,” she blurts out. “And my apartment.”
Well, that explains it. I take a bite of pasta, waiting for her to tell me more.
“I even lost my cat. Darn thing went off just when the movers arrived, and I called her for ages but she didn’t come back…”
She sniffs and wipes a tear carefully from her eye with the back of her finger.
“I’m sorry about your cat.”
“Thanks.” Her look is sheepish. “Actually, I think the neighbors had been feeding her for a while. She’ll be fine. Cats always are.”
“How’d you lose your job?”
“I took a voluntary buyout.” She winces when she says it like I might judge her. But hell, I’m not here to judge, just to listen. “I hated working for a bank, so when they asked for volunteers to take a buyout, I said I’d go. But I’d only been there a few months, so the payout wasn’t good.”
She trails off and raises the wine glass to her lips. This time she takes a big gulp.
“Your mom wouldn’t approve?”
Danni gives me a look. “That’s an understatement.” She takes another gulp of wine, and I wait for her to continue.
“Mom is… particular.”
“Particular?” I raise my eyebrows, trying to understand what she’s telling me.
“She has this idea of what my life should be like, and I’ve always followed it. I went to college, I did an MBA like she wanted me to, I got a job in the city for a banking firm because I knew it would make her happy. But I hated it.”
Her shoulders slump like she’s got the weight of the world on them.
“Can’t you do what you want to do?”
“Sometimes. Like I bought that totally impractical car because I loved it, but now it’s broken down, so…” She shrugs. “Whenever I do something to please myself, it ends up going wrong anyway…”
She takes another gulp of wine and looks away. I try to imagine what it must be like trying to please someone else.
“That doesn’t sound fair.”
“The worst thing is that my sister does everything Mom wants, and she does it effortlessly. She got an economics degree, she works for one of the big banks in the city, she’s engaged to a banker. My sister is living the perfect life, and here I am, no job, no apartment, no boyfriend…”
She trails off. “Sometimes I think Mom knows best and I feel bad for wanting things for myself, and sometimes I get so guilty because I’m not doing what Mom wants. She gave up so much for us kids. And I’m a terrible daughter because I can’t make her proud.”
That’s a lot to put on someone, but I keep my thoughts to myself. I don’t want to diss her mom, but it sounds like she’s putting her daughter under a lot of stress.
“How old are you, Danni?”
“I’m twenty-three.”
I was in Iraq when I was twenty-three, following my own dreams. It’s what you should do when you’re young.
“What if you did what you wanted to do for a change?”
She raises her gaze to meet mine. Her long eyelashes glisten with the hint of tears. “I wish it was that easy.”
“It can be.”
She shakes her head. “You don’t understand my mother. She’s…forceful.”
“Well, she’s not here.”
Danni licks the wine off her lips, and my gaze darts to her mouth. A wicked idea is starting to form, and I wonder if I can get her to go along with it.
“For one weekend, why don’t you do exactly what you want to do without trying to please anyone else? Just do what Danni wants.”
Her brows knit together like she doesn’t understand the concept. “Like, whatever I want?”
“Why not? You’re on vacation. I’ll even help you.”
“How will you do that?”
“You request something, and I’ll go out of my way to make it happen.”
Her eyes widen as she thinks about it, and my dick hardens. I’m a bad man. There’s only one thing I hope Danni wants.
“So let me get this straight. If there’s something I want this weekend, something I want to do and it’s within your power to do so, you’ll help me do it?”
I lick my lips, imagining Danni down on all fours asking me to fuck her.
“Anything you want. A weekend of yes.”
She sits back in her chair, her eyes never leaving mine. Her manicured finger trails around the edge of the wine glass.
“A weekend of yes? How does that work?”
I lean forward, my eyes darting to her lips that I’m aching to kiss.
“You ask me for something, anything you want, and I say yes.”
Her pupils widen. It’s an indecent offer, and I have no idea what I’m doing.
I’ve never said this to a woman before. I don’t know what game I’m playing, but I want Danni to ask me to do bad things to her.
I’m prepared for whatever she asks. I’ll make her scream my name as I make her come over and over again.
“Okay.” Her voice comes out as a whisper, and a slow smile spreads across her face as she comes around to the idea.
“So, what do you want to do Danni?” My voice is husky, and my cock’s as hard as stone.
“I want to play chess.”
It’s not what I was hoping she’d say.
“I saw the carved set by the fireplace. I used to play with my dad before he left…” Her eyes flicker with uncertainty. “I mean, if you want a game, that is.”
“Whatever you want. I’m here to help you forget about your mom’s wishes and focus on yours. And if you want to play chess, that’s what we’ll do.”
She grins, and it’s the first time her eyes light up too.
“I want to play chess.”
“Then let’s get the board out.”
My dick will have to wait.